Comments on: Biofuels May Hinder Antiglobal-Warming Efforts http://globalwarming-factorfiction.com/2008/02/12/biofuels-may-hinder-antiglobal-warming-efforts/ Dedicated to the balanced discussion of global warming Sun, 04 Dec 2011 14:02:31 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: John Galt http://globalwarming-factorfiction.com/2008/02/12/biofuels-may-hinder-antiglobal-warming-efforts/comment-page-1/#comment-3974 John Galt Sun, 24 Feb 2008 05:43:34 +0000 http://globalwarming-factorfiction.com/2008/02/12/biofuels-may-hinder-antiglobal-warming-efforts/#comment-3974 Farmers have been feeding spent mash to cows and pigs for as long as I can remember. Ask any brewery. What that has to do with the price of feed corn escapes me. City people who write about biofuels seem to have the misguided understanding that the byproducts somehow disappear and are never used. That's simply not true. Food and fuel can be derived from the same crop. That still does not change the fact that ethanol in N.America is a scam. It takes as much petro energy to make ethanol as they get out as ethanol. It's just a clever way to subsidize farmers and turn petro into alcohol. Seems like a rather stupid idea to me, but hey that's politics... what can we expect, eh? Farmers have been feeding spent mash to cows and pigs for as long as I can remember. Ask any brewery.

What that has to do with the price of feed corn escapes me.

City people who write about biofuels seem to have the misguided understanding that the byproducts somehow disappear and are never used. That’s simply not true. Food and fuel can be derived from the same crop.

That still does not change the fact that ethanol in N.America is a scam. It takes as much petro energy to make ethanol as they get out as ethanol. It’s just a clever way to subsidize farmers and turn petro into alcohol. Seems like a rather stupid idea to me, but hey that’s politics… what can we expect, eh?

]]> By: admin http://globalwarming-factorfiction.com/2008/02/12/biofuels-may-hinder-antiglobal-warming-efforts/comment-page-1/#comment-3973 admin Sun, 24 Feb 2008 03:36:00 +0000 http://globalwarming-factorfiction.com/2008/02/12/biofuels-may-hinder-antiglobal-warming-efforts/#comment-3973 John - Thank you for your comment and I am not as versed in the full use of corn but something seems missing in your argument. The price of Corn according to CBOT in 2005 was in the low 200s and even dropped below 200 for awhile. The price now is about 450. This is a doubling of price in about 2 years. Since the commodities marketplace is almost a "perfect" marketplace, something is obviously putting pressure on this supply and demand and everything I have read is that it is alcohol. Does the process that you are describing exist today in wide scale use or is this a relatively new way to use alcohol byproduct? John – Thank you for your comment and I am not as versed in the full use of corn but something seems missing in your argument. The price of Corn according to CBOT in 2005 was in the low 200s and even dropped below 200 for awhile. The price now is about 450. This is a doubling of price in about 2 years. Since the commodities marketplace is almost a “perfect” marketplace, something is obviously putting pressure on this supply and demand and everything I have read is that it is alcohol.

Does the process that you are describing exist today in wide scale use or is this a relatively new way to use alcohol byproduct?

]]> By: John Galt http://globalwarming-factorfiction.com/2008/02/12/biofuels-may-hinder-antiglobal-warming-efforts/comment-page-1/#comment-3961 John Galt Sat, 23 Feb 2008 09:09:39 +0000 http://globalwarming-factorfiction.com/2008/02/12/biofuels-may-hinder-antiglobal-warming-efforts/#comment-3961 The "Biofuels Take Food From Our Mouths" argument is based on fallacy. The two most common biofuel feedstocks, corn and soybeans, are grown for animals to feed the industrial meat business producing pork, poultry and beef. Processing these feedstocks to extract sugars or oils to make biofuels, makes the byproduct 'seed cake' and 'spent mash' more digestible as animal feed. Thus the animals get more nutrition from the byproduct than the original feedstock, and less is crapped out as waste. We can get food and fuel from the same crop. Granted that the feedstock grains and legumes could be exported to feed the starving millions instead of being used to feed meat animals. But that practice has been going on for decades, is not likely to change, and is totally external to the biofuels issue. The “Biofuels Take Food From Our Mouths” argument is based on fallacy. The two most common biofuel feedstocks, corn and soybeans, are grown for animals to feed the industrial meat business producing pork, poultry and beef. Processing these feedstocks to extract sugars or oils to make biofuels, makes the byproduct ’seed cake’ and ’spent mash’ more digestible as animal feed. Thus the animals get more nutrition from the byproduct than the original feedstock, and less is crapped out as waste. We can get food and fuel from the same crop.

Granted that the feedstock grains and legumes could be exported to feed the starving millions instead of being used to feed meat animals. But that practice has been going on for decades, is not likely to change, and is totally external to the biofuels issue.

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